The next day, Ponyboy is walking across the courtyard, when Rainbow suddenly runs up to him. "Ponyboy! Ponyboy wait!"

Ponyboy stops and turns to her, "Hey Rainbow," he says, "What's up?"

"Nothing much...Uh, listen Ponyboy, I'm sorry about the dance," she says, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear, "If it seems like I ditched you, I assure you I didn't mean for it to seem like it, I did want to dance with you...it's just, well, you know how Jay can be." she says.

Ponyboy nods, and thinks back to Jay's warning, "Yup, I know very well."

"Again, I'm really sorry. I tried looking for you...But then I realized you left."

Ponyboy feels a lot better knowing that Rainbow had cared where he went, and that she had looked for him.

"Don't worry about it." Pony says with a smile.

Rainbow smiles back at him, "Well, I'll see you later. I gotta go do some stuff for class." she says.

"Alright, see you later."

After Ponyboy and Rainbow split paths, Ponyboy heads back in the direction of the boy's dormitories. When he gets there, he's about to open the door, when he suddenly hears:

"HEEEY CURTIS!"

Ponyboy jumps, just before someone barrels into him and puts him in a headlock, rubbing their knuckles back and forth on his head furiously.

"Wai-...Curly?! Curly Shepard?!" Ponyboy asks in disbelief.

Curly grins and let's Ponyboy go, "Yep." he says.

Pony looks at him in shock, "Wha-...What're you doing here?" he asks, trying not to sound rude.

"Long story," Curly says, crossing his arms and leaning up against the wall, "Dallas told Tim about how this place gives certain kids 'second chances', and because Tim was gettin' a little bored without Dallas around, he decided, 'why not'?" Curly says, before laughing.

"Wait, Tim's here?" Ponyboy asks, keeping the panic out of his voice, but it isn't because of Tim.

"Yup, Angela's here too."


That following Friday, Ponyboy and Johnny both meet up by the library for a study session, due to the fact that they both have tests coming up, Ponyboy in History, and Johnny in Science.

"Hey Johnny." Pony says as Johnny walks up to him.

"Hi Ponyboy, how are you?" Johnny asks.

"I'm alright. Ready to study?"

"I guess so." Johnny says with a slight sigh.

Ponyboy turns and pushes open the door to the library and is in awe once again: The library is made of dark wood walls, with high stained glass windows, a dark red carpet and ivory marble floor, it also has a high ceiling, and huge bookshelves just filled to the brim with books, there are also computer desks, and tables.

Ponyboy and Johnny find the nearest table and sit down, "What do you have to study?" Ponyboy asks, getting his History book from his bag.

Johnny furrows his eyebrows slightly, "Protons, Neutrons, and Electrons." he says, getting his notebook from his bag.

"Oh, those aren't so bad." Pony says.

"Maybe, but they're boring, you have to admit." Johnny says, sitting down, "I wish I was studying History."

Ponyboy just chuckles and starts to read his History book.

As the two study, Ponyboy suddenly hears the library door open again, but he doesn't think anything of it...until he hears high heels walking in his direction, rather quickly.

"Ponyboy?"

Ponyboy feels his heart stop, 'It can't be.' he thinks. He slowly looks up and comes face to face with dark blue eyes.

It's Angela.

Her dark red lips morph into a smile before she walks closer, leans over the table and stretches her arms around Ponyboy's neck, like a very odd hug, "Hey there Pony Sugar-baby." She purrs seductively, "Didja miss me?"

Ponyboy's face turns an ugly, blotchy red. He had completely forgotten about Angela's weird nicknames for him, "Uh...yeah, sure" He says, while thinking, 'No, not at all.'

Johnny's watching all this from the side, he looks around and is relieved to see that they're the only ones in the library, because Angela said Ponyboy's nickname none-too-quietly.

"Uh, Angela, I'd love to catch up, but I have a History test in a couple of days and I have to study." Pony says, scooting out of Angela's hold on him.

"Aw c'mon," Angela sort of pouts, pushing her chest forward so her already over exposed breasts were even more noticeable, "Can't you do this later? You did say it was in a couple of days."

"I just want to get this done early, so I won't have to deal with it later." Ponyboy says, doing everything in his power to keep from looking down Angela's cleavage, which isn't easy because she practically shoved her chest in his face.

"But wouldn't it be fun to go on another date?" Angela asks seductively, "We had fun the last time you asked me out remember?"

"You asked me out," Ponyboy corrects her, "And I don't really want to go on another date. You're nice and everything," that's a lie, "But I'm just not ready to start dating yet."

Ponyboy and Angela had gone on a date a few weeks before Ponyboy moved to Crimson Arts. Ponyboy just wanted to go on a simple movie date, but Angela couldn't keep her hands off of him throughout the entire movie.

Angela leans closer to him, "I can be a bad girl if you want me to." she breathes in his ear.

Johnny decides he's had enough of this, "Hey Pony, I'm gonna look for another book, I'll be right back." He says, getting up and walking away.

Johnny never told anyone this, but he doesn't really like Angela. He likes Tim and Curly okay, but Angela he just can't stand. Not only is she very mean and tough as nails, but she throws herself at pretty much any guy, and right now it's Ponyboy.

He groans quietly before he turns to try to look for another book, however, he runs right into another girl who is in the same section and knocks her books from her hands, "Hey!" she exclaims, going to pick up her books.

"Oops! I'm so sorry!" Johnny says, kneeling down to help the girl pick up her books.

"It's alright, don't worry about it." The girl says as Johnny hands her one of her books.

When they both stand up, Johnny is able to get a view of what the girl looks like, he feels himself blush lightly, she's really pretty: She has dark tan skin, dark brown hair that's tied into two pigtails, and beautiful dark blue, slightly turned up eyes, she's also wearing a pair of square shaped glasses with thick black frames.

"Uh...What's your name?" Johnny asks her.

The girl adjusts her glasses, and kind of dusts off her sweater, "Beatrice." She says, "But everyone calls me Straight A."

"It's nice to meet you...uh, Straight A. I'm Johnny Cade."

"It's nice to meet you too Johnny." Straight A says, combing a piece of hair behind her ear, "Uh, did you need help finding anything, I'm the library helper, so I can help you."

"No, I know what I...Actually, yes, I do need help with something." He says, hatching a quick plan. He points in Pony and Angela's direction, "That girl over there is bothering us, is there anything we can do?"

Straight A looks at Angela, "Yeah, I can tell Ms. Wormwood and she can ask her to leave." she says.

Straight A leads Johnny to the front of the library, toward the marble top desk of the librarian.

"Excuse me, Ms. Wormwood?" Straight A asks as they reach her desk.

"Yes Beatrice, what is it?" Ms. Wormwood asks.

"Um, that girl over there is bothering another student." Straight A says, pointing in Angela's direction.

Ms. Wormwood closes the book she was checking in and looks over at Angela, "Alright, thank you for telling me Beatrice." she says, standing up from her chair.

Ms. Wormwood walks over to where Ponyboy and Angela are, "Excuse me." she says causing Ponyboy and Angela to look at her, Angela with annoyance, and Pony with relief.

"What?" Angela snaps.

"I'm sorry, dear, but the library is not a place for making dates. You're both welcome to stay if you're wanting to study, but otherwise I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

Ponyboy answers quickly, "Yes ma'am, I do have to study, I have a history test coming up."

Ms. Wormwood directs her attention to Angela, "Are you studying also? I see that you don't have any study materials with you."

Angela looks irritated and angrily tells Ms. Wormwood, "I just came in to say hi to Ponyboy, he's an old friend of mine." Then she tosses her hair, and marches out of the library.

Ponyboy looks at Ms. Wormwood, "Thank you." he half whispers in relief.

"You're welcome dear." Ms. Wormwood says, walking back to her desk.

"Thanks Straight A." Johnny says, smiling at her.

"No problem Johnny." Straight A says, walking back to the section she was in.

"Who was that?" Pony asks as Johnny sits back down.

"Her name is Beatrice, but everyone calls her Straight A, she's the library helper, and she told the librarian about Angela." Johnny explains.


A little while later, during dinner, Ponyboy is sitting with Cameron, and tells him about Angela.

"Yeesh," Cameron says, leaning back and crossing his arms, "She sounds like your version of Jay."

"She is!" Ponyboy exclaims, "And what's worse is that I'm worried about what she'll do when she finds out about Rainbow...and vise versa."

"Well I don't know about Angela, but if you explain the situation to Rainbow I think she'll understand." He glances over at Jay for a moment, "I think she'll understand a lot."

Ponyboy just nods and looks down at his food, when he suddenly hears,

"Hey there, Pony baby."

"Hi Angela." Ponyboy says, trying to keep the annoyance out of his voice.

Angela plops down in the seat next to him and presses herself against him.

"Glad to see you're away from your books." She says, "Now we can catch up."

"Great." Ponyboy says, trying to keep the sarcasm out of his voice.

Cameron's eyes are wide as he looks between Ponyboy and Angela, 'My god,' he thinks, 'I think she's worse than Jay!'

Across the dining hall, Rainbow's walking in the direction of the buffet, when she looks over and suddenly stops dead in her tracks. 'Who's that?' she thinks, looking at the girl who's plastered against Ponyboy.

Rainbow stares at the girl for a moment, she's really pretty: She has long black hair, tan skin, and very dark blue eyes, not to mention she's wearing clothes that don't leave a lot to the imagination.

She suddenly has this odd feeling and continues toward the buffet, 'I haven't seen her around before, I wonder if she's new.'

After Rainbow gets her dinner, she walks over and sits down with Cathy, Sage and Jamie.

"Hey Rainbow." Sage says happily.

"Hi." Rainbow replies, not sounding happy at all.

"Is something wrong Rainbow?" Cathy asks.

Rainbow opens her mouth to tell them about Angela, but she decides against it, "It...It's nothing, I'll tell you about it later."


A little after dinner, Rainbow is walking out of the dining hall, when she sees Ponyboy, he looks over and sees her also, then he grins.

"Hey Rainbow." he says.

"Hey Ponyboy, how're you?" she asks.

"I'm alright, I went to the library earlier and got some studying done for the History test that's coming up." he explains.

"History test? What teacher do you have?" Rainbow asks.

"Mr. Hawley, what about you?"

"I have Ms. Cozart, we already had a test last week." she says, "Hey, are you in advanced or regular history?"

"I'm in regular, I didn't take any advanced courses this year cause I'm new, but I'll probably switch to advanced next year."

The two continue to talk about their classes as they start to make their way back to the dormitories, "I'm also in advanced English, that's how I met Randy and Marcia, we have the same class." Rainbow explains.

"Oh cool! Is it hard?"

"A bit, but I really like English, so it isn't that bad." she says.

"Nice." Ponyboy says with a smile.

The two eventually make it to where the path to the dormitories splits apart, "I'll see you later Ponyboy." Rainbow says.

"Alright, see you tomorrow."

Rainbow waves at Ponyboy before she makes her way to the girls' dormitories, when she gets to the entrance, she's about to open the door, when there's a voice from behind her, "Care to explain to me who the hell you are?"

Rainbow jumps slightly and turns around only to come face to face with a pissed off Angela Shepard.

Rainbow just blinks, "Excuse me?" she asks.

"You heard me." Angela snaps, taking a step closer to Rainbow, "Who are you and why were you talking to Ponyboy?" she asks.

"I have Art class with him and we're friends." Rainbow explains, "There's nothing else to it."

"Nothing else to it my ass!" Angela exclaims, "Ponyboy didn't look that happy when I talked to him!"

Rainbow kind of tilts her head, "I don't even know who you are." she says.

"The name's Angela, Angela Shepard, and you better stay away from Ponyboy." Angela says.

"What?" Rainbow asks.

"Are ya deaf?! I said you better stay away from Ponyboy! He's mine ya bitch! If you go near him again–!" Angela doesn't finish her sentence, she just gives Rainbow an 'I'll beat the crap out of you' look before turning on her heels and going inside the girls dorms.

Rainbow stands there in semi-shock for a minute before she hears Jamie's voice, "Who was that slut?"

Rainbow turns around and sees Jamie, Sage and Cathy walking up to her, "She said her name was Angela Shepard. I think she's new."

"She must have steel guts, I've never seen a new girl act like that before." Sage says.

"...Hey, can I talk to you guys for a minute?" Rainbow asks suddenly.

"Of course!" Sage says.

"Well, not here! Let's go up to my room, I don't want anyone else to hear me." Rainbow says, looking around.

The four of them go inside and quickly walk up to Rainbow's room, once there, Sage and Jamie sit on Sage's bed, while Cathy and Rainbow sit on Rainbow's bed.

"What did you want to tell us Rainbow?" Cathy asks.

"It's about Angela," Rainbow says, nodding to the door, "I saw her in the dining hall a little earlier."

"That's what was bothering you!" Sage says, "What was she doing?"

"She..." Rainbow's face turns a dark pink, "She was hanging all over Ponyboy."

Cathy, Sage and Jamie all look at each other and say, "OOOH!"

"Yeah I can see why that would piss you off," Jamie says, "If I saw someone hanging all over the guy I liked, I'd be pretty mad too, but I personally think you have a much better chance than she does."

Rainbow looks at her, "You do?"

"Of course!"

"Rainbow," Cathy says, "I don't know if you've noticed, but Ponyboy is head over heels for you."

Rainbow blinks, then blushes, "He is? How do you know?"

"You didn't see him when we went to Digs, he wouldn't look when Jay threw himself at you, he blushed when you asked what his favorite class was, and when Jay asked if he had a girlfriend, he said "I haven't really found anyone I like yet" and his eyes darted over to you instantly!"

Rainbow blushes heavily, then smiles.

"...Not to mention you're ten times prettier than her." Cathy says.

"Thank you." Rainbow says, blushing still.


A little while later, after Jamie and Cathy leave, Sage starts to mess around on her phone and Rainbow lies down on her stomach, her face half buried in her pillow.

'He likes me, Ponyboy likes me!' she thinks, 'Okay, that's it! I have to do something! I need to show him I like him, so I can get Jay off my back, and get Angela away from Ponyboy...But how?'

AN: There's two of them!